Rap Battle!

Divide the class in the teams, and have a good, old-skool rap battle! 
It's just a straight-forward "which team can come up with the most words / phrases / sentences on a particular topic" turn-taking game, but with a twist.

Play it up, do lots of over acting, wear a baseball cap backwards - (and provide some for the "battlers")  - the lamer the better.

It doesn't need to rhyme, doesn't need a beat, and it doesn't even need to be sentences - for beginners, I'd start with a familiar topic (for example clothes). One team goes first, someone steps forward and "throws down" a word / sentence in the target language then "busts a sick move."  For more of a "rap feel", I'd get students to give 3 words (not necessarily as a sentence, but as a list with a little rhythm thrown in)

The first team / player to run out of ideas, loses. Then move onto another topic, or theme (eg, words beginning with "b")

This can be made harder for more advanced students - has to be a sentence, has to rhyme, has to relate to the sentence just given by the opponent... or, to make it harder for beginners, the word / words has to fit a beat (play a beatbox or rap beat from youtube or maybe get another student to beatbox)

Just a warning: It's not for everyone - the students (and you!) need to be prepared to make a fool of themselves with their mad acting skillz. Yo! Check it!

If...

Divide the group into 3 to 5 teams.

Teams take turns to come up with a statement in the target language beginning with "If..." and ending with "please sit down"
For example -  "kalau rambut kamu berwarna cokelat, duduklah" ("If you have brown hair, please sit down") or "kalau anda lebih suka anjing daripada kucing, duduklah" ("If you prefer dogs to cats, please sit down.")

The aim is to knock out as many members of opposing teams as they can while leaving as many of their own team standing as possible. I would suggest that the winning team must have at least 2 people standing so that the one person in the class with a unique hobby can't just use that to make their team win "If you do archery, please sit down... oh, that's everyone but me!"

Statements may not be mean, insensitive or picking on one person (eg, "If your name is Matt, please sit down.")

Students who are sitting down can still offer statements for their team. I tend to go with a rule that each team member can only speak once so that everyone has a chance to speak. I encourage a variety of language using my normal class point / raffle ticket system to get the kids to be creative and to take risks.

This game can be great for students to get to know each other, and also is fun if the students know each other well as they can use what they know about each other.

You could add the opportunity for people to give a "please stand up" statement stand up again, but perhaps with the proviso that they can't just repeat a previous statement - so, if the team got knocked out by "if you prefer dogs to cats, please sit down" they can say "if dogs are your favourite pet animal, please stand up", but they can't just say "if you prefer dogs to cats, please stand up."

You can focus on a theme - eg clothing, hobbies or just encourage students to come up with whatever they will. If it's getting too repetitive & similar, feel free to add a new rule (eg maximum of 4 statements about hair & eyes)

I hope all that makes sense! If not, please forgive me (and also let me know so I can clarify! I'm a bit flu-y at the moment...aduh!)

Image from http://www.exceltraining.org.uk/excel-training-images/excel-if-statement.jpg

Silent relays

This is a version of Chinese Whispers, but the focus is on writing rather than speaking.

Organise students into teams of between 5 and 10, and get the teams to form lines.
Give the person at the back of each team a word written on a piece of paper or card. They need to "write" the word using their finger on the back of the next person in their team - without speaking. They can rewrite it if needed. The 2nd person then writes the word on the back of the next person in the team, and so on till the get to the last person, who writes the word on a piece of paper (or on the board). If it's the right word, and it's spelled correctly (with accents etc if appropriate), the first team to write the word wins (or gets one point). If it's wrong, the team starts over.

For a longer game, count this as one round. The person at the front of the line moves to the back and everyone else shuffles down one place and a new word is given.

Repeat as desired!


This could also be played by "air writing" with the finger (with the 2nd team member turned to face the first, but with the rest of the team still facing away.

Foldover - write, read and draw.

Another version of foldover stories - my sister taught me and Miss 7 this last weekend while she was visiting from inter-state and I've already used it with great success in class.

For this version, each student again needs pen & paper. Colour pencils can be useful also.

To start, each person writes a sentence (or, even better, a short paragraph) in the target language.  This is passed on to the second person who reads what was written, and has to DRAW it as best they can.
Now, the writing is folded over so that only the picture can be seen, and it is passed on again.
The next person must write what they think the initial sentence (or paragraph) said, based on what is shown in the drawing.  Fold over so only the latest writing is visible, and repeat. And repeat again if desired :)  You should end with writing rather than a picture. At the end, students compare the first and last versions.

There's a full explanation here. (I found it after I'd typed up the post, and was looking for a picture! Oh well!)

Mini-foldover stories!

This version of foldover stories is much quicker, and can work with students with a smaller vocabulary - so better for younger students or those with less language experience.

I've taken the instructions from ITESLJ, as written by Vicki Konzen.

This is an old favorite.
Give each student a sheet of blank paper. Write the following words on the board in a vertical line: WHO, WHAT, HOW, WHERE, WHEN, WHY.
Explain that everyone will be writing a sentence story.
Write an example on the board, explain, asking for suggestions.

1. Tell them to write someone's name at the top of their paper, i.e., their own, a classmate's, the teacher's, a famous person that everyone knows; fold the paper over once so no one can see it, then pass the paper to the person on their right.
2. Write on the received paper what the subject did (suggest funny or outrageous actions), fold it over and pass it on to the right.
3. Continue to write one line, how they did it (adverbs), fold and pass; where-pass; when-pass; and last of all, why (because...) and pass it one more time.
4. Have the students unfold their stories, and read them silently. Help anyone who cannot read what the others wrote, or doesn't understand.
5. Ask one student at a time to read "their" story aloud, or turn the stories in for the teacher to read. Funny! 

Something I would change is the suggestion to use a classmate's name, as it can end up being (unintentionally or intentionally) mean. I'd let them make up a name, or use a celeb or similar.  You can make it more complicated by making it a paragraph rather than one sentence - this is taken from Wikipedia's explanation of the game Consequences
Each person takes a turn choosing a word or phrase for one of eleven questions, in this order.

1. Adjective for man
2. Man's name
3. Adjective for woman
4. Woman's name
5. Where they met
6. He wore
7. She wore
8. He said to her
9. She said to him
10. The consequence was… (a description of what happened after)
11. What the world said

You may need to give some extra vocab to support this, and change the order of adjective-noun for some languages.

As an alternative, you could prepare a foldable worksheet or handout for the students to add their responses.

Selamat bermain!

Fold-over stories

Please forgive me if I've written about this before - I've had a quick search & couldn't find it so thought I'd add it :)

I use fold-over stories regularly with my Year 11 class to get them focusing on conjunctions, story-writing, character descriptions and general extending writing techniques. 

Each student will need a pen or pencil and a sheet of lined paper. I like to get the students sitting in a circle to make passing things on easier, but they do need to be at a desk or have something to lean on while writing.

Firstly, each student writes the start of a story on their page, then they fold it over so that only the last line can be seen. (This could be as few as one word, or 3 or 4 words, or a whole line if you prefer.) I ask that the students end mid-sentence.

Once they have folded the page over to hide most of what they have written, they pass it on to the person to their left, who now has to write the next part of the story without knowing what has come before.  They write a sentence to continue the story (or a few sentences - up to you to decide how much you ask them to write!), then fold it so only the last line is visible and pass it to their left.

This keeps going until the end of the page (or when you decide to finish the activity). The student now writes the ending of the story folds it over and passes it on one more time.

When everyone has finished, the students unfold the story and read it quietly - you can help with understanding as necessary. Ask for some volunteers to read or translate (or read and translate) the story, or perhaps ask for some great examples for you to read & translate to the class. Make sure that you leave time for this, as the stories are nonsensical and often very funny - and it's great to have students really trying to comprehend and collaborating to understand like they do with this activity.

I get the students to rewrite the story correcting any spelling or grammatical errors they notice in the story that they have ended up with for homework as an extra activity (both to practice grammar & spelling, and to encourage them to focus on spelling and grammar as they write), but then I'm mean like that ;) They don't write their name on it at any point, so the mistakes are somewhat anonymous.

This can be done in small to medium groups sitting in a circle, or as a whole class :)

Mad Libs

Happy 2016!

This one is straying a little from the active games that I've tended to focus on, but I'm really looking forward to it trying it with my classes when school starts.

This came to me in the usual round-about way - I was googling craft ideas for Miss 7, got distracted and eventually saw a reference to MadLibs in a side bar and had to google that as I had no idea what it meant. It's a cloze activity, but with a twist - or maybe a blindfold? :)

It turns out that Mad Libs are stories where you have to fill in the blanks in advance, without knowing the context, just the word type (noun, verb,, adjective, adverb, pronoun etc...). What a great way to get students to be more aware of the parts of speech!

Here's an example in English -
Before you read the story in the image below, write down one of each of the following in order:
1) adjective
2) verb
3) verb
4) verb
5) plural noun
... and so on.  this is just a taster, after all.

There are loads of examples online (I did a super quick google on Mad Lib French and there were a few there already made up), but it would be so easy to create your own that were focused on particular grammar points or vocab.  Here's an example of one that could be adapted for high school second language classes below (How to date the coolest guy / girl in school) that gets students to identify vocab related to clothes, parts of the body etc.

 The best part is, students are not just motivated to read through the story as they copy in their previously identified words, they will most likely want to share them with their friends by reading aloud (or translating the story.)  Then there's discussion about what other words would have worked (or not!)...I can see a lot of potential in this.

I think I won't tell the students in advance why they are writing down the words, just get them to make the list before handing out (or showing on the projector??) the story-with-blanks. 
 
What do you think? Would you use this with your classes? What changes or suggestions do you have?

Selamat bermain!
Danielle

ps - here's a video example:

Typewriter

This was inspired by another improv game, with the instructions adapted from Bringyourimprov.

I imagine this primarily as a aural comprehension activity, with the teacher doing the narrating.

One of the students (or the teacher!) acts as the Narrator. They mime typing on a typewriter or computer, and pretends to read what they are typing out loud while typing. The students (who have been allocated roles before the start) act out what they hear.  The Narrator can switch to another location, introduce new character or add unexpected events. 

Students who are not participating watch carefully, and could either act as prompts to help the actors, or could take over a character if an actor makes a mistake or doesn't demonstrate their understanding well enough.

Variation (from the original instructions)- When a scene goes bad, the Narrator can mime ripping a couple of pages of his story apart, and restart the scene (or the story).

Other ideas: If you have a dress-up box, then you could add descriptions of the characters, and students need to select the appropriate clothes to wear.  
Provide props that they need to select when mentioned in the story, or perhaps there are a number of students who can be selected to be the prop.

Selamat bermain!
Danielle

A conversation game

I was initially inspired by from a drama / improvisation game as explained at bringyourownimprov called Alphabet, but this is quite a way removed from that original idea.

Divide the group into two teams. The teams are each given a person's name (e.g. Jono and Sani) and line up facing each other. Each team IS that person.
The first member of the first team (Jono) begins the game by starting a conversation (e.g. "Good morning sir, can I help you?").
The first member of the second team (Sani) responds (e.g. "Good morning, yes, I'd like to buy a shirt.")
then, the second member of the first team continues the conversation as if they were the first person (Jono).
next, the second member of the second team (Sani) responds, and so on until someone can't continue the conversation, or says something that doesn't make sense given the rest of the conversation, or repeats something that has already been said (unless they make it clear that this is deliberate - e.g. "what size was that again, sir?").

The idea is that they need to listen to what comes earlier, and answer questions appropriately and use the information that has already been given in the conversation.

Alternatively, it could be a story instead of a conversation, and could just go around a circle rather than having teams. (the teams just make it clearer for the conversation as to who is who, if that makes sense!)

If you have a class with a lot of experience with oral practice that can be relied to get on with using the target language without constant monitoring, or if you have an assistant in the room, you can divide the class up into 2 or 3 groups which are then divided into teams. It would also work you are using the peg system of encouraging target language use, or appoint "TL use monitors" who give out points for people using the TL, or take them away for using English (or their background language).

To get everyone involved for the whole time (beyond just listening carefully) you could get the whole team to do appropriate actions for that person. (e.g. holding out hand to shake when the first person introduces themselves, or in the shopping for a shirt example, holding up shirts to select from, or trying on the shirt ... depending on the character).

To make it harder (e.g. for upper school classes), I'd go back to the improv game that inspired this - I've copied the instructions below.
This is a scene consisting of 26 lines of dialogue. The first line starts with a given letter (say `R`). The reply to that line must start with a `S`, and so on, until the whole alphabet has been covered. After `Z` comes `A`. Players that hesitate, use the wrong letter, uses random words or does not move along the scene are replaced by another player. 

This could be done as per the original, or as the team version I've described.

I'm going to be looking into improv games that I can adapt over the next few weeks, so hope to have some more ideas to share soon! Please drop me a line or write a comment if you have other game ideas, or to let me know what you think of this activity!
I'm off to go play pass the parcel with my Year 7s - have a great day!
Danielle

Kerajaan (Empires)

I was just thinking the other day that I should add something,  and then this morning I came across Andrew Teo's version of Empires as written up in Warta WILTA - I've copied it verbatim below. I love games that get students to use and then remember vocab items like this, and can't wait to try it out with my classes. 

Students write a word/term on one side of a small piece of paper and their name on the other side. The teacher collects and reads all the words/terms on the pieces of paper. It doesn’t matter if words/ terms are also used by other students. Students listen and remember the words.

A nominated student starts off by asking another student: “Apakah kamu ... [word/term]? The person asked answers “Ya, saya.......” or “Bukan, saya bukan..........” [if it is a noun] or “Tidak, saya tidak .......”[for verbs/adjectives]

These ways of asking and answering should be written on the board for easy reference. If the questioner gets it right, the student who answers “Ya, saya .....” is OUT of the game AND moves over to where the questioner is sitting. This student is now part of the questioner’s EMPIRE. The questioner keeps asking others as long as he/she gets right answers. If not, the person who is asked has a turn.

When a questioner asks a student who already has an ‘empire’ and gets it right, then he/she gets all of the ‘empire’. The ‘empire’ moves over to where the student who got it right sits. The student with the largest ‘empire’ [after a certain time] is the winner. Generally, in most games, I’ve found students are able to recall all the terms used and it ends up with one student being the winner.

NOTE: To speed up the game, give each student only 5 seconds to ask a question. Students who are part of someone’s ‘empire’ are to help recall what terms haven’t been used ie they are helping. 

One variation that I may make would be to write the list of words up on the board in English, so that it becomes about remembering the meaning as well as the word itself. I think that the it's important to keep the students who have already been selected engaged, so the final point that Andrew makes about them helping create the largest empire could prove to be particularly useful. I suspect that it will very quickly become a game of strategy in my classes!

What would you change? Or would you leave it as is? Do you have a favourite game or variation that I haven't included? I'd love to hear from you!
Salam,
Danielle

I have... Who has...?

I hesitated to share this one for two reasons - firstly, because it does require some more preparation than most games in this blog, and secondly, because it was the first time I've used a game that was a complete failure - or so it felt at the time.
The thing that bothers me is I can't see why it failed. It's a great concept, the kids (my Year 9 class, who have been playing games with me for 2.5 years now) agreed that it should work... but it just didn't.
The instructions (pinched directly from Games in the Foreign Language Classroom, which has a great range of games with clear instructions), are copied at the bottom of this post. You may want to read them first before reading about how it went with my class...

We played it with weather & cities ("It's raining in Surakarta, what's the weather like in Banda Aceh?").
Coming up with more than 50 places so that the kids would get at least 2 cards each took a little research!  I tried not to repeat the weather types too much, by giving different combinations and by adding modifiers (very, a little) etc where I could. Next time I'd add temperatures as well. To give students a reason to listen, I made them write down the weather of the place they were asking for. I used English only on the cards, and the weather was dot-points rather than a sentence.

The kids and I found it frustrating as it only took a momentary lapse of concentration for someone to not hear the question that corresponded with their card, so there were long pauses and quite a bit of repetition across the class (Who has Sulawesi? Alice, do you have Sulawesi?" - poor Alice was the first one to not hear her place, and so when the next pauses occurred, everyone immediately blamed her - yes, the name has been changed!)

BUT - on reflection:

• the students did hear the question and relevant sentences over and over without being bored by it.
• the students practiced asking about and giving details about the weather
• the students were exposed to a lot of Indonesian cities, regions and places that they hadn't heard before (as well as some familiar ones) - and this prompted discussion about where places were, similarities in names as well as differences and the fact that some place names were similar to familiar words.
• Most of the frustration expressed and resolved in the target language (eg, other people around the room repeating the question or asking poor Alice directly in Indonesian rather than in English)

So - yes, I will use this again. Perhaps I'll experiment first with that Year 9 class now that they know how to play, experimenting with dividing them into smaller groups as is suggested at the end of the instructions at Games in the Foreign Language Classroom. I also didn't use a stopwatch - maybe this would add a little more excitement & "need for speed" so I will definitely incorporate a timer next time I give it a go.

Maybe it was just because it was the last lesson of the day of the last Monday of what has felt like a long term... (they did much better with Weather Battleships the next day!)

Do you have any other ideas on what could make this work? I'd love to hear from you!

I have __, Who has ___?
• Teacher must prepare cards carefully in advance as follows:
o Each card has “I have” and a vocabulary word in the TL on the top half.
o On the bottom half the card has “Who has” and a different vocabulary word pictured or in English.
o The cards “chain” so that eventually they circle back to the beginning.
In these examples, imagine the top in the TL:

I have Dog	I have Cat	I have Horse	I have Cow	I have Duck	I have Hen
Who has Cat?	Who has Horse?	Who has Cow?	Who has Duck?	Who has Hen?	Who has Dog?

o The set should contain enough cards so that every student will get one to three cards.
o Be creative: if the vocab list isn’t long enough, tweak the way it’s used: for ex weather (in Nice it's cold what's the weather in Paris?)

• Shuffle the cards, and distribute them all. If students have more than one card, each student should make sure than his/her cards don’t connect.
• Teacher begins by starting a stopwatch and calling out “Who has” and one of the words (in English). (I borrowed a stopwatch from the PE teachers until I got my own—sometimes one of the students has a stopwatch feature on his/her watch).
• The student who has the TL for that first word reads their card: “J’ai chien. Qui a cat?” (Tengo perro. Quien tiene cat?).
• The next student reads their card.
• The object is to get through the whole set as quickly as possible.
• I have multiple sections, and make it into a competition—each class period get three attempts (and we trade cards in between each round).
• If you plan carefully enough, you can make each set the same number of cards (thirty, let’s say) and have the class attempt to beat their past times (works instead of competing among sections)
• After the class learns how to use the cards, use the sets in groups so each kid has 5 or 6 cards each. They really get lots of vocab practice.

Variations on Bingo

These are taken directly from FrenchTeacherNet, by Steve Smith. It's a fantastic collection of resources and idea for French teaching, many of which can be adapted to other languages.
Thanks Steve for letting me share these!

Five variations on bingo

Loto is a great game for classes. It is worthwhile for reinforcing number recognition, students enjoy it, it is a good class calmer if you need it and it needs no preparation so it's great to fall back on as a teacher. I'm talking about number bingo here, not bingo with pictures or vocabulary.

There are some easy variations if you want to get away from the standard "call out numbers" version. By the way, you can buy ready-made bingo cards with numbers 1-90 - it's a good to have a load of them in the cupboard - or students can just write down, say, 10 numbers in a range you give them. One advantage of having "official" cards is that you can do lines as well as the "full house".

1.  Mental arithmetic bingo

With this one, instead of reading out a number, you give classes a simple mental arithmetic sum to solve which leads to the number which may be on their card. You need to teach them simple terms like plus, moins, multiplié par and divisé par. The advantage of this variation is that it provides more mental challenge. The downside is that pupils don't make the immediate link between the number you read and the number written in front of them. You might also need quite a good class to do it.

2.  Reverse bingo ("death bingo")

In this variation all the class stands up. You call numbers and if a number comes up which is on a child's card, they must sit down and they are out of the game. This variation goes by quite quickly and is a fun alternative, but the obvious downside is that once a pupil is "out" they have no more motivation to listen to numbers.

3. Number sequence bingo.

Instead of just reading a number, you read simple sequences of numbers and pupils have to work out what the next number would have been. You can make this as simple or as hard as you want, depending on the class. e.g. 1,2,3,4 ___ . Or 64,32,16 __. You can cater for any number easily e.g. 5,4,3,2 __. I like this version because students get to hear a lot of numbers, so you are maximising input. the minor downside is that, as in mental arithmetic bingo, pupils do not make an immediate match between the number they hear and the number of the paper.

4. Group bingo

Just break the class into small groups and get one person to act as caller. This has the advantage of allowing some students to do the calling. The downside is that students may hear poorer models of pronunciation and there is the danger of an over-noisy classroom.

5. Number in a sentence bingo

In this variation, instead of reading out a number, you read a sentence containing the number. e.g. Il y a 30 personnes dans la classe; j'ai deux frères; le numéro soixante est intéressant. This has a greater level of challenge and is an opportunity to provide input at the sentence level, allowing pupils to hear numbers in context. Some classes may find it too hard and the teacher may need to do a bit of thinking beforehand about the nature of the sentences which are feasible. This may be a version to do with classes who have been studying at least a year.

Here are sites which will generate bingo cards for you.

http://print-bingo.com/
http://www.dltk-cards.com/bingo/bingo1.asp
https://bingobaker.com/

Reverse Bingo

A lot like normal Bingo - but in this variation, you don't want your numbers called!
Students write down 9 or so (you tell them how many to choose) different numbers between 1 and 100.
As per Bingo, the teacher calls out numbers in the target language. As soon as even one of their numbers is called, that student is out. The winner is the last student to have none of their numbers called. A pretty quick game, so it doesn't matter if someone gets out really early on.
I've adapted this from "Irish Bingo" as described here. There, they suggest getting everyone to stand, and the students sit as soon as one of their numbers is called so you can see clearly how many people are left.

Battleships

I've been playing around with different ways to use Battleships in class. It's just a good, old-fashioned information gap activity really.
Usually, it's done with letters of the alphabet and numbers as per the image above. (Here's one version of the basic rules.) I've been experimenting with other combinations - such as hobbies / activities down the side and hate / dislike / don't really like / like / really like / prefer / favourite across the top of the grid.
I put these in English (or use images to represent them), but you could put them in the target language if you prefer. I tend to leave space for the weaker students to write the TL in as a prompt.
In this version, students ask "do you really like basketball?", selecting a degree of liking and an activity. If that coordinate is a hit, their partner answers yes, if it's a miss, they answer no. I'd make them use full sentence answers for practice.
Of course, the question for "Is sleeping your favourite?" is a differently structured question in many languages, so you may want to get your students tho think about how to ask each of the different questions before they start.
It's another way to drill questions & answers, as well as the vocab.
Alternatively, the degrees of liking could be replaced with days of the week, times of day etc...
If you don't like the idea of calling it Battleships and don't want to use different types of ship, you could call it Hide & Seek and call each of your "ships" something else.

Any other ideas for variations?
What other "old favourite" games do you adapt for your language class?
I'd love to hear from you!
Danielle

Fly Swat!

I was surprised to realise that I hadn't added this before - it's something I use pretty regularly, and it works well all the way through to Year 12... 

The commonest version of this to pre-prepare the whiteboard with lots of vocabulary that you want the students to revise / consolidate (target language, or English equivalents, or a mix of both).

Three to five students at a time (depending on the size of your whiteboard and of your students) come & stand at the board. Give each student a fly swat (different colours are best if possible).

Call out a clue such as a translation of one of the words on the board, but it could be something more completed too, depending on your students’ level & range of vocabulary eg for soccer – “there are 11 people in the team”. The first person to “swat” the word wins a point.

I suggest 3 questions per group, then rotate to the next set of people at the board to keep the class engaged – works especially well if they are in teams (eg the red fly swat team, the blue fly swat team etc).

Another version I’ve used is to start with a blank whiteboard. The first set of students have whiteboard markers. You call out a vocab item, and the students draw it or write it up for you, then once all the vocabulary you want is represented, continue as above.

You can also use flashcards or images / word cards on the floor or a large table, or project the words instead of writing them up.

You can also get a student to take the role of teacher as well.

Tables (The Verb Game)

I learned about this game just a week ago from the lovely Caroline, who teaches French at my school. She calls it The Verb Game. It's already a favourite with my students, from Year 7 all the way through to Year 11 & 12!


-->This is adapted from a French conjugation game. In the French version, you have the pronouns down the first column, and verbs across the top row – the blank spaces need to be filled with the correctly conjugated form of the verb for the pronoun that matches the row (see image!)

As conjugation isn’t an issue for Indonesian, I  draw up a table on my laptop which I show via the projector with different questions in each box. (questions could be vocab items needing translation) Write the question in the top of the box leaving space underneath within the box for the answer. (alternatively, you could just write it on the board, but then you need to take more care when erasing wrong answers)

Divide the class into 3 to 5 groups, and then number each student within the group (1 to 5 or whatever suits your class size). Assign each group a colour and a corresponding whiteboard marker.

Call out a number. Each student that corresponds with the number called from each group rushes to the front, collects the group’s whiteboard marker and then can write in the answer in any one space on the board that is left (one person per space!). Any incorrect answers are wiped off.

The group that has the most of their colour on the board at the end of the game wins. 

Isn't it funny how sometimes it's really simple things that the kids enjoy the most?

Count against the clock

A really simple and quick game. The students count - one student per number - going around the class.
But time it, to see just how fast they can go. After a few tries, count backwards to see if they can match their top speed. Students love it!
Once they have the hang of it, start with a higher number, count by 10s, 5s, or be really tricky and count by 7s or 3s :)
This could also be used for practice saying the alphabet in the target language - any other ideas or variations? Please let me know!

Top of the Mountain / Gunung Agung

This game is really similar to Ashurbanipal / Pak Totomoto / Babo, however it has one HUGE advantage - no one gets out, so everyone is involved for the whole game.
My Year 9s taught me this game (when I played Pak Totomoto for the first time ever with this class this week, a few of them told me that it was a bit like Gunung Agung - they'd played it when they were in primary school language classes)

For those who don't speak Indonesian, Gunung Agung is a mountain in Indonesia. I'd replace it with Mount Blanc perhaps for French, and maybe Kosciuszko for English (pronounced Koz -ee-osk-oh - it;s a mountain in Australia) - you want something of a couple of syllables and preferably a little tricky to pronounce! 

Basically, everyone sits in a circle and is given a number. I found it really helpful to have the numbers written (in figures) on a piece of paper in front of each student. One student is "Gunung Agung" (or relevant mountain name) and has that title instead of a number - this is the highest position. The aim of the game is to move as high up the mountain as possible.

Gunung Agung starts by saying "Gunung Agung" then saying a number. (eg "gunung Agung - 12")
The student with that number says their number, then another. ("12 - 23")
and so on, and so on ("23 - 4" "4 - 18")

Until someone gets out.

You get out if - 

• you call the person who just called you
• you call a number that is out, or isn't in the game
• you call a number that is one higher or one lower than your own.
• you answer out of turn (eg if you are in chair 12 but you answer when 20 was called)
• you take tooooo long to respond - the snappier the game is, the more fun it is.

When someone is out, they stand up and move to the bottom of the mountain (seat 1). Everyone who had a lower number than that person moves up one chair to fill the gap.

Obviously, as the aim is to be at the top of the mountain (in the Gunung Agung chair at the end of the game), it makes sense to target the higher (and often harder to remember) numbers rather than the low numbers.

I'd suggest a clear time limit and possibly showing a timer so the students know when the end is near - the people near the top of the mountain get rather frenetic at the end! 15 minutes would be a good length for this game, but you could run it for anywhere from 10 to 25 minutes.

My Year 9s also suggested that instead of numbers, you could use picture flashcards for the chair places as a way of drilling other vocabulary, depending on the topic.  Numbers also would not need to start with one, or possibly could be not consecutive (but still lowest to highest).

Love this variation & think it will become a regular part of my classes!
ps - the mountain pictured is Gunung Bromo not Gunung Agung - I just love the photo!

Riddle me this...

A riddle game. I've seen a few versions of this around (such as The Green Glass Door). Basically, you have a secret rule which the students need to guess. Anything that follows that rule, you like, you don't like anything that doesn't.
For example:
"I like peas but I don't like carrots. I like pears but I don't like apples. I like ears but not noses."
Students need to guess the rule by asking yes / no questions - "do you like beans?" (yes) "do you like pants?" ("no, but I like jeans!") - in this case the rule is to do with spelling - I "like" things with an "ea" in them, and don't like things that don't.
A variation would be getting students NOT to say what the rule is when they have worked it out, but to give extra examples to help the others - generally the smug "I know something you don't know" feeling is enough of a reward. You could use a weak or new student to help you by secretly telling them the rule and they give some extra examples. If students work out the rule, they should keep quiet about it, but
It can be more simple (eg liking things that begin with S, ) or more complicated (words with a double letter, words that contain the letter y - as complicated as you want to make it!)

It's a good game to get students thinking about spelling, or grammar (feminine plural nouns? -ir verbs?)

A variation is to use different language instead of like / don't like. "I'm going to a party and I'm bringing peas. Would you like to come?" "Can I bring carrots?" (no) "Can I bring Jeanette?" (yes) (same rule as above)
or "I'm making soup and I'm adding beans" "Can I add bacon?" "Yum! yes!" "Can I add ham?" "Yuk! no!" (rule = words beginning with B)

Babo

Hello!
Another term is about to begin, so I've been thinking about ways to revise and get the students back into the swing of things. I've recently been to France for a French course for teachers, and by coincidence my old French teacher was there  for the same course. Obviously, this made me think about her classes, and why I enjoyed them so much. She used Ashurbanipal fairly regularly (I've written about Ashurbanipal here before) and I thought I'd give the game a new twist (new to me!), adapting it to other vocab rather than just sticking with numbers.

First, get everyone sitting in a circle then start a body drumming rhythm as follows - slap your legs twice, clap your hands twice, click your left fingers then your right fingers then back to the start. Don't go too fast!

The reason for the circle is so that it is clear who is next.  Here's a video of the basic number version.

For other vocabulary, give a topic (words beginning with M, sports, things that are small enough to fit in a pencil case, feminine nouns, part participles...). Start it yourself by saying "start" on the first click and give a word that fits the topic on the second click. Going around the circle, the students each in turn say the word given by the person just before them on the first click, then adding a new word on the second click. (That's why you want to make sure that the rhythm isn't too fast!)

 

so, it might go:

slap slap clap clap "start Mandarin" (first person)

slap slap clap clap  "Mandarin Man" 

slap slap clap clap "Man Magazine"

slap slap clap clap "Magazine Moon"

and so on. If you miss the rhythm, or say something that has already been said, you're out. It's basically a trickier version of "Think Fast" :)

I'm going to play the number version as a warm up first as I haven't played this version with my classes, but at the start of the term all revision & anything getting them speaking can't be a waste of time!

A bit of googling has shown me that this game is called "Babo" (fool) in Korea, but I'm sure there are other names around too.

What do you think? Any other variations? Would this work with your classes? Let me know!

 

The Pizza game

Wow! it's been a long time since I've added anything, but have a couple of new things to share. Don't know about you (dear theoretical reader), but I'm actually finding that it has been really useful to create this resource for myself as much as for anyone else, because now I can go back and remind myself of games I haven't tried for ages - it's amazing what you forget.

This game I found on another site, added by Dagmara Muszynska.
I have left the instructions in her words - please note that this game does require some preparation.

PIZZA GAME – Game to learn/practice vocabulary

This is my students favourite game. They love it and you can use it in any language B class. It takes a bit of time to make it but it is really worth of it.

To make a game you need to:

1. On the sheet of A4 paper draw and than cut a circle (as big as it possible on the paper).
2. On the circle draw 3 lines to divide it into 6 pieces (just as a pizza or a birtday cake).
3. On each piece draw quite dots 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 (just like on dice). Now it looks a bit like a pizza, isn't it.

This will be your base. Now it's time to make pizza pieces (tasks to do by students)

4. cut paper into triangles (as many as you want)
5. on each triangle put one task to do by students

Your game is ready. Now it's good to laminate everything so you can use it many times.

How to play it:

1. students sit around the table
2. put your pizza (base) in the middle
3. put your pieces of pizza under each part of your base
4. student roles dice
5. students takes the piece of pizza where is the same number of dots
6. student solves task on the piece of pizza
7. student may take the piece of pizza if he solve task correct – than teacher put next piece in empty place
8. student need to put back thepiece of pizza if couldn't to solve the task.
9. The winner is student who has the the most pieces of pizza at the end of the game

What you can use it for

1. practise new vocabulary/expressions

ñ on each piece put word/expression in language of instruction. Students need to say the word in language B.

2.    putting words in correct order

ñ on each piece write mixed words. Students need to put them in correct order and make a sentence

3.    put the right form of noun/verb/adjective

ñ on each piece write sentence with one word that is in incorrect form. Students need to say the sentence using correct form of word

4.    answer the question

ñ on each piece write question that students will be supposed to answer

In fact there is much more possibilities to use this game. The only limit is your imagination. Good luck and have fun during the game

Grudge Ball!

All the credit for introducing me to Grudgeball goes to the awesome Penny Coutas (@pcoutas on twitter)... My students LOVE this. Have made a couple of changes to suit my groups, but it's such a cool idea!
Rather than give full instructions, I'm going to give a link (sorry). I think the photos provided help make things clear. Here's the link.

The actual game is originally from Kara Wilkins.

Vocabulary Gallery Walk

Not really a game... but still fun, especially if you play up the "gallery opening".

I love the idea of creating a gallery in this way, and getting students to give feedback on each others' work. I feel that if the students know they are creating for each other rather than just for the teacher, they will try that bit harder. Your "gallery" doesn't need to be word+definition+example - you could  use the gallery idea just as easily for a "creating" activity rather than simply a revision exercise. And if you don't have laptops, access to a computer lab or ipads / tablets there are other ways to do it - good old paper, or why not experiment with BYOD (bring your own device) if your school will allow it?
I have pasted these instructions directly from edudemic.com - here's the link.

"1. Vocabulary Gallery Walk – Each student will be given a word to define and provide an example for. Students will use Sock Puppet or Go Animate to create a mini skit to define and example their word. Students will lay iPads around the room and walk around to review each skit. Sticky notes will be placed near iPads for students to leave comments. Students will be instructed to write definitions and examples as they view each skit on their Vocabulary Gallery Walk Recording Sheet."

In the same article, Edudemic also suggests creating mini movies as a way to revise, then having a film festival / "world premiere" (possibly complete with popcorn?). Again, a great idea easily adapted from revision activity to an MFL activity.

Of course, you could go "old school" minus the technology aspect, and just challenge the students to create posters to show the meaning of the word / phrase / sentence without using any English :)

Snowball fight!

This idea was shared by Carissa Peck, in her blog, Trying to Teach.

Snowball fight!

Basically, get each student to write a relevant question in the target language on a scrap piece of paper. (You could use vocabulary items instead of questions if you want - but in either case, the answer should not be written down, just the question.)
Then, they scrunch the piece of paper up into a ball and wait for a signal from you, when everyone is ready.

then - 30 seconds of chaos while they throw "snowballs" at each other.

When time is up (I'd recommend a VERY clear signal!) each student grabs the "snowball" closest to them. Select students to read out and (try to) answer the question.

I personally like Carissa's suggestion of making it into a team competition - divide the class into two before the snowballs go flying, on opposite sides of the room. "At the end if they answer their review question right, their team gets 10 points. If they don't get it right, let their team help them out and if as a team they are correct they get 5 points. (Let the other team steal after that for 5 points if you wish)"
Carissa has a couple of other suggestions for different versions on her blog. Her version in full is here.  You have to admit that it would be a memorable lesson, which the "teaching the brain" theorists state is a key part to get students to remember what they learned in the lesson.  Have fun!